U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,071 discloses that optically active m-phenoxy-mandelonitrile is used as a production intermediate of an agricultural fungicide.
Optically active m-phenoxy-mandelonitrile is one of optically active cyanohydrin compounds, and as a method of producing an optically active cyanohydrin compound, known is a method which comprises reacting an aldehyde with hydrogen cyanide in the presence of an optically active vanadyl catalyst (see, Japanese Patent Application National Publication (Laid-Open) No. 2004-533490). Meanwhile, there is also known a method in which aluminum chloride and an optically active bisoxazolylpyridine compound are reacted to obtain an asymmetric complex, and an aldehyde compound and trimethylsilyl cyanide are reacted in the presence of this asymmetric complex to produce an O-silyl ether of an optically active cyanohydrin compound (see, Tetrahedron: Asymmetry, Vol. 8, p. 1279 (1997)).